Nick Gates Foundation

The Nick Gates Classic has just been run for the second year. This year we decided to join forces with the TP Human Capital Triathlon and make it a multi sport festival. The criterium was the first event on the menu. It was staged along the beautiful Strand in Townsville on the Saturday afternoon, the same circuit as last year. Unfortunately the only downside of combining with the Tri Festival was that we did not have the same class of rider, as all the Australian pros are still in Europe. Nevertheless we still managed to run a great race enjoyed by everyone on the day.

The lead up to the main event were two support races, one being an Under 17 Open which was taken out by local gun Jakob Restall. Following the junior event was the B and C grade combined event. After some tough racing this was won by Byron Tucker in a close finish ahead of his old mate Russell Leary. These two men used to race each other over thirty years ago around the tracks in Tasmania so it was great to see them out there still going hard and also great to see them supporting the sponsors who looked after us again with a VIP down at the watermark drinking a thousand Coronas (each).

Then it was time for the main race to get under way. I must say I was nervous, as I had been talked into lining up ten months after my last race. I was just lining up to support the race but once the flag dropped it was a different story as my heart rate was around 200 by lap two. A mate of mine Paul McRoberts from the Gold Coast was also there to support the race. I remember turning to him on lap three and saying, “s#*t this is going to be a very long race or a real fast one”, as I had the feeling that I would be watching the finish of the race from the sideline.

After fifteen minutes of really suffering I finally started to feel a little better and with about five laps remaining I was able to get away with two other guys who were riding very well. As we entered the last lap it took all my experience I had to get across the line with the win in front of a very fast finishing Chris Klem.

All in all, it was a great event and I made a promise on the stage that I will never pin a number on again, only at club level for a bit of fun together with my boys who are now racing their bikes on the Gold Coast. After a couple of hours talking with people who help make the race possible it was time for a great dinner with friends at the Watermark, thinking about the teams event the next morning.

Sunday I awoke to loud voice of my mate David Mckenzie who is the voice of cycling for SBS during the Tour de France. It was 6.30 am and I was hearing, “all competitors to the mashelling area please”. Dave agreed to come up and do the commentary for my race on the Saturday and also to help the triathlon out by commentating for them as well.

Off we went down to the start. I was doing the bike leg for a local gun swimmer by the name of Nathan Barret and my mate Paul from the Gold Coast was doing the run. My wife Belinda was also doing the bike leg with another gun swimmer from Townsville, Lee Zahner, with Paul’s wife Sally doing the run. The Sunday was a teams corporate event which attracted 350 teams and everybody had fun competing along the strand.

At the end of the day Belinda and I both ran third in our category so we were pretty happy.We also had about ten friends from the Gold Coast come up to compete having a lot of fun.

After a fair bit of work to run the event it was a good feeling to again raise a bit of money for the north Queensland kids in the Nick Gates Foundation.